It’s no myth that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health states that your morning chow provides you with energy for the day’s activities and helps maintain healthy body weight. But despite the “most important” tag, many still find preparing and eating a healthy balanced morning meal a challenge.
We know that breakfast is important, yet it is a meal that is often a hurried affair. Many favor food that is the most convenient to cook (as in fried fare) and eat, while some skip it altogether.
In an initiative to encourage a good breakfast habit and make the first meal of the day exciting, Nestlé Philippines has launched I Can’t Believe It’s Breakfast! – a book featuring 30 easy-to-follow recipes that offer a variety of breakfast ideas to excite the palate and spice up the mornings. Recipes vary from the very “quick,” when you don’t have much time to spare, to the “not-so-quick,” for mornings when you can invest a little more time and effort for the most important meal to jumpstart your day.
Speaking at the launching of the cookbook, Nestlé Philippines consumer engagement services head Aurora Alipao cited the most common reasons why people skip breakfast. “Working parents like us are always pressed for time, so preparing a nutritious breakfast for our children early in the morning may prove to be a daunting task. Children themselves, especially adolescents, prefer to get more sleep than rise up early to have breakfast. And then of course, there are those who purposely miss breakfast in a misguided attempt to lose weight.”
Studies show that those who skip breakfast become easily irritated, feel weak and uncoordinated, and tend to over-eat later in the day. Performance at work or in school also suffers, and weight management becomes difficult – reasons why Nestlé continuously highlights the importance of eating a meal before starting the day.
“Breakfast not only gives you the right fuel to perform your day’s tasks, it also sets the pace for the types of food you choose to eat throughout the day, helping you better manage your weight,” Nestle Philippines corporate nutritionist Catherine Sarmiento emphasized.
“Aside from promoting bone, gut and heart health, breakfast also helps you focus and do well mentally and emotionally. When it becomes part of your daily routine, breakfast promotes a healthy lifestyle for you and your family,” Sarmiento added.
Recognizing the time constraints everyone faces in the morning, Sarmiento suggests for parents to have a weekly breakfast plan that allows food variety (to avoid taste fatigue) and optimizes nutrition, while sticking to the budget. “Planning ahead will save you time during the week, and will ensure that the breakfast you serve daily helps meet your family’s nutritional needs,” she said.
“Another way to encourage kids to eat breakfast is to involve them in breakfast planning, and to ask them to help you prepare breakfast on weekends and holidays when there is more time. This gives you an opportunity to bond and connect,” added Alipao.
I Can’t Believe It’s Breakfast! is available exclusively to members of the Nestlé Club. For more information on the Nestlé Club and how to get a copy of the recipe book, visit www.nestleclub.com.ph